Convertible furniture



APPLICATION FILED NOV, 13, 192i].

ummy/I45;

Patented (lot. 3, 1922.

a in! SOLOMON Kara, or enrol too, rLLiiiorsQ CONVERTIBLE FURNITURE.

Application filed November To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SOLOMON liars, citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, Illinois, have invented certain new and usefullmprovements in Convertible Fur iture; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to furniture, one of its general objects being that of providing an article of furniture which will ordinarily serve as a bench or the like, and which can readily be opened up to afford comfortable bed. Another general object is that of providing an item of parlor furniture which can readily be converted into a childs crib.

In one of its more particular aspects, my invention aims to provide an article of furniture of this class having arms or bolsters at each end so arranged that'either the entire arms or parts of the same are adapted to serveas supports for one-half of the bed when opened out; also, to provide an arm or bolster construction which will make these parts amply strong and rigid while still permitting of there being upholstered to afford both comfort and handsome appearance. In another aspect, my invention aims to provide a convertible article of furniture of the class described in which the upholstering includes a pair of box springs which ordinarily are. double-decked above each other so as to utilize their jointresiliency for the seat normally afior'ded by the bench or sofa, but in whicheachof these box springs will e'lfectively serve as the spring portionfor half of the opened bed. Furthermore, I aim to construct my article of furniture in such. a manner that the frame will not present a ridge along the'middle of the opened bed, but will permit the two box'springs to cooperate in affording the desired resiliency for a bed-bottom which stretches across (the entire width of the opened bed. I also aim to afford this provision by-means which are concealed from View both when the bed is opened and when the bench or sofa'i's in its normal service.

In another aspect, my invention aims to provide an article of furniture which can ordinarily be used as a sofa, bench or the like, and which can readily be converted into a childs crib. For this purpose, myinvention also includes a crib frame arranged so is, 192a Serial no. 423,907.

that it can readily be folded into compact form for storage, and aims to provide simple and eifect ve means for firmly attaching this frame in its unfolded form to the article of furniture when opened out to form a bed. Still furtherandv more detailed objects will appear from the following specification and fromtheaccompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a front elevation of an uphol stered bench'or the like, showing this in the closed form in which it forms an-articleof parlor furniture. i

Fig. 2 is an end view of the same article of furniture when the bolster arms are detached from. the same andwhen this piece of furniture is opened out to form the supporting bed portion of a crib.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary elevation taken from one end of Fig. l, with a portion of the bolster arm cut away to show the manner in which this-arm is sockcted upon the adjacent riser which forms one of the legs of the-opened bed of Fig. 2.

iFigL 4 is an enlarged plan view taken alongthe corresponding line of: Fig. 2 and showing the method of latching the guard frame of the crib to its support.

, Fig. 5 is a vertical section through the same parts, taken along the correspondingly numbered line in Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a reduced plan view of the guard frame of the crib when unfolded for use, and Fig. 7 is asimilar plan view showing this frame as folded for storage.

Fig. 8 is a front elevation of a longer upholstered bench embodying my invention.

Fig. 9 is an end View of the same, with an upper portion broken away to show theconstruction of one of the armsor bolsters, and with dotted lines indicating the position of the upper portion when the bed is opened.

Fig. 10 is a fragmentary enlarged section, taken along the corresponding line of Fig. 1.

Referring first to the embodiment of Figs. 8, 9 and 10, the upholstered bed-benchmf these illustrationshas four legs 1 supporting a rectangular frame consisting of four panels 2 which are respectively close to the four sides ofthe lower upholstered portion of the bench. This frame houses a series f i s 3 entirely inclosed by a casing of fabric including a bottom lupon which the springs rest, webbing 34 supporting this bottom, and a top fabric portion 5 which serves as half the bed-bottom when the bench is opened up. The upper portion of the bench has a counterpart wooden frame portion to that of the lower part, including panels 6 extending along the four sides offrom its normal position of Figs. 1 and 2 to bed.

theopened position which is shown in dotted lines in Fig. 9 and which is partly shown on a, larger scale in Fig. 10. When the bed is thus opened up, the front portions 10 and 11 of the upper and lower fabric casings which house the two box springs are laterally adjacent to each other as shown in Fig. 10, and the previously contiguous fabric portions 5 and 7 extend horizontally side by side with each other and in lateral alinem'cnt with each other, so as to combine in forming the bed bottom. In so doing, the two box springs which are effectively superposed on each other when-this article of furniture is used as a bench, combine inaffording thedesired resiliency and comfort for the bed. To permit of their doingth-is along the middle of the bed, I cut away the front panels 2 and 6 for some distance from the edges along which these are hinged to each other, as shown by the dotted line 12 in Fig. 8. Consequently, it will readily be seen from Fig. 10 that the bed-bottom can sag greatly without striking the edges of these cut-away panel portions, so that the latter do not in terfere in any way with the comfort of the I am, therefore able to produce highly comfortable bed construction in a normally narrow bench, as for example a bench of only half thewidth of an ordinary single bed.

To support the portion of the bed which is normally the upper part of the bench, the front panel 6 of Fig. 9 and the corresponding rear panel at the rear end of the bench are provided with arms 6 reaching substantially to the tops of the bolsters. That to say, I use these wooden arms as ends for the upholstery 13 .of each bolster and only provide a relatively thin and comparatively incompressible upholstering over the edges of the ends of the arms 6 However, I desirably also upholster the outwardly directed ends of these arms 6 by overstuffed upholstery 14, so as to increase the handsome appearance of the resulting bench. Moreover, I plan the height of these arms 6 so that the distance from each of the hinges 15 to, the top of the upholstery on one of these arms exactly equal to the height of the hinge above the floor. By doing so, I cause the bolster arms to engage the floor for the entire length when the bed is opened, thereby affordin the desired rigid support for half of the resulting bed.

It will be obvious from the above that I can accomplish the purposes of my invention in a quite simple construction which utilizes a the entire set of springs effectively at all times, and that by thus cutting away part of the paneling, I can insureva comfortable spri" 9 mally is quite narrow. I am therefore able to provide a comfortable bed in an article of parlor furniture which is so narrow that it can be used to advantage in a room where the space available for an article of furniture is quite limited. However, while I have illustrated and described my invention as embodied in an upholstered bench suitably proportioned for affording a single bed for an adult, I do not wish to be limited to these proportions.

Neither do I wish to be limited to using bed in a bench orthe like which northe upholstered arms as direct supports for one-half of the resulting bed, as embodiments of my invention might be employed in places where the upholstery would be marred or soiled by contact with the rugs or with the floor. To guard'against such objections, I preferably do not attach the bolster arms permanentlyto my article of furniture, but

desirably socket each of these arms on suit-j ably proportioned riser-legs 16 after the manner of Fig. 1 and Fig. 8. That is to say, I equip each of these arms with a pair of downwardly open socket formations adapted to slip over a pair of risers 16 which normally extends upwards and which will serve as legs for part of the opened bed when the upholstered arm is detached.

Where the convertible article of furniture of my invention is to be used at night as a childs bed, I also desirably provide a suit- 1 able guard frame arranged so that it can readily be attached to the opened article of furniture for surrounding the portion of the latter above the bed bottom. For this purpose, I am here showing a guard frame having upper rails 17, 18, 19 and 20 succes-' sively hinged to each other, so that they can either be folded into a compact form as shown in Fig. 7, or opened out as in Fig; 6. Each of these upper rails forms a part of a vertical frame including posts 21 connecting the top rail to a corresponding lower rail 22, the said upper and lower rails being connected by a number of suitably spaced risers 28. Each of thecorner posts 21 has anchored in it a downwardly extending stem24 two of which slidably enter a correspondingbore and the remaining two of which enter bores in the outer ends of the panels 6. 'Each stem 24 also desirably has a groove 25 adapted to be engaged by a latch 26, so that these latches will lock the posts against accidental lifting and hence will prevent the occupant of the crib from lifting the guard frame out of its normal position.

Thus arranged, it will readily be seen that for normal use, I can provide a childs crib which ordinarily will afford a handsome piece of parlor furniture, and for which the detachable guard portion can readily be stored in one side of an ordinary closet. However, I do not wish to be limited to the details of construction and arrangement above disclosed, it being obvious that the same might be modified in many ways without departing from the spirit of my in vention or from the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. In convertible furniture, a frame including a pair of hinged members arranged to lie side by side in one position and having sockets in the corners thereof facing upwardly in said position, a crib guard having corner posts provided with depending stems peripherally grooved at points adjacent the bottom ends of the posts, said stems being of such lengths so that the lower ends thereof will engage the socket bottoms and hold the grooves of the stems above the top of the frame and latches pivoted at one end to the frame and formed to enter the grooves and having their opposite ends free and extending outwardly from the frame, the latches being disposed between the frame and the bottom ends of the corner posts.

2. In a convertible furniture, a frame including a pair of hinged members arranged to lie side by side in one position and having sockets in the corners thereof facing upwardly in said position, a crib guard having corner posts provided with depending stems said stems being of such lengths so that the lower ends thereof will engage the socket bottoms and hold the grooves of the stems above the top of the frame and, means to latch the stems in the sockets arranged between the lower ends of the corner posts and the upper face of the frame in said position thereof.

Signed at Chicago, November 10th, 1920,

' SOLOMON KATZ. 

